Quetisi Remembers

The Story of a Cherokee Orphan Girl

By Dorothy Kawaguchi

Quetisi, a Cherokee orphan, is left on her own at the age of 12. She finds work as a servant, but is mistreated. How will she solve her problem. Quetisi can go backto the Cherokee family who took her in when her parents were murdered by General Scott's Army, but they barely have enough to eat. She knows that many of her people hid high in the Smoky Mountains when the soldiers came. If she runs away, will she be able to find them? Can she survive on her own.

ISBN 1-59431-227-3 Fictional Biography/Heritage

Cover Art by Maggie Dix

Prologue

Quetisi took one last look back toward the house. She thought of all the lonely nights she had spent there thinking about all her friends and her parents and thinking about her own future. She had enjoyed many nights, lying on her bed just looking at the stars and cloud formations. Betsy’s last look told her she must go. Then she hurried on up the mountain to where her clothes were hid. Betsy didn’t walk; she started running.

After climbing a few hundred feet, Betsy left the trail she and the Bakers’ dog, Shep, had walked many times. When she thought of Shep and the many walks they had taken she smiled. I am going to miss him more than anyone. As she was pushing back the tall thick bushes out of her way and crawling through underbrush trying to stay out of sight, she wondered if she was making a big mistake by leaving. But Betsy kept on climbing.

She thought of all the abuse she’d had to endure for the last several months from the family. Betsy’s last few weeks were the worse. Especially with Mrs. Baker. Thinking about these things, gave her more courage to keep on going. She came to where she had hid her bundle and hurried to uncover it. Betsy slung the bundle on her shoulder and started climbing again. She had a long way to go before reaching the top of the ridge.

She felt bad about leaving Aponi and Kuruk and her friends, but she felt she was doing what was best for her. They have enough responsibility taking care of their own family. She heard them talking about going back upon the mountain anyway, and try to make a living there for their family.

She wanted to try and make her own way. Betsy had enough confidence in herself that she would be all right. Her parents had taught her how to survive when they were hiding out from General Scot’s white soldiers.

While she was making her way to the mountaintop, her pace was getting a little slower and her breathing was short and fast. She thought about sitting down just for a few minutes to rest. She stopped for a few seconds and looked up the mountain to see how much farther she had to go, before reaching the top.

As she was climbing, and was nearing the top of the mountain, she heard a noise behind her. She looked around and didn’t see anything. The noise stopped.

She kept on climbing and climbing. Betsy heard the noise again. She turned around again but couldn’t see anyone or any animal behind her. She kept on climbing. She heard the noise again. This time the noise was close behind her.

Betsy stayed very still, held her breath, and thought back over the last year. Had she been right to run away?

Betsy heard the noise getting closer. She thought about all the wild animals on the mountain. What if it were a bear?



Chapter One

An Orphaned Indian Girl

A little Cherokee girl, Quetisi was an orphan who lived with another Cherokee family who were close friends of her parents before they died. Aponi and Kuruk had been hiding in the mountains while the Cherokee people were rounded up and driven from their home in the Carolinas, just as Quetisi’s parents had done. When it was finally safe for them to return, they found everything they had once owned was gone.

Kuruk and Aponi had decided Quetisi must come to live with them after her parents died. The Cherokee didn’t have a lot of children as white families did. Sometimes when they had several generations in a family, the younger couples looked out for their elders. Quetisi’s new family had three children. A son, called Kwan, who was almost the same age as Quetisi. An older daughter, called Tesha and a baby daughter named Wanasa who was just learning how to walk. Aponi and Kuruk also cared for their elderly parents and grandparents and that made a house full.

Quetisi had been small when her folks went into the mountains, but now she was twelve and she had begun to notice things. She noticed how carefully Aponi divided the food. She noticed that sometimes there was barely enough to go around. Quetisi noticed that sometimes Aponi and Kuruk took very little food, to make sure the children and elders would be better fed.

Quetisi knew Aponi and Kuruk cared for her, but she worried that they might not have enough to feed her and their own young children as well. After all that they had gone through, it was hard for Aponi and Kuruk’s family, who had lost their land and everything they had, to take care of their own children and try to start their lives over.

As young as Quetisi was, she felt grateful to them for trying to help her. Everyone she knew had lost all they had when they ran from General Scott’s soldiers and now they were all trying to start over again.

As hard as it was for them, the Cherokee people never faltered. They were all ready to do whatever they had to in order to begin their lives anew.

Can you imagine how sad it was for Quetisi to have lost all her relatives and to be left alone in the world, with no one, when she was just ten or eleven years old?

Quetisi missed her parents terribly. She was grateful that Aponi and Kuruk had taking her in to live with them and given her their love.

But the longer she stayed with them, the more Quetisi realized that her new family couldn’t really afford another mouth to feed. She told Aponi that she wanted to find a job and not be a burden to anyone.

“You are too young to work for anyone?” Aponi said. “Who could hire you? All of our people are too poor to pay wages, anyway.”

“It is good that you want to help,” Kuruk said. “When you are older you may find some kind of work. But for now, you must be content as you are. Go to sleep now and dream of better times.”

He gave her a hug and Quetisi found her sleeping mat, but she did not go to sleep right away. I am too young to work, she thought sadly. But soon I will be twelve years. Surely, I will be old enough to work then.

Quetisi continued to speak with Aponi and Kuruk often about wanting to find a job. “Maybe some white person would hire. They have more than they need.”

“You are much too young to work for white people. We know you worry about us, but you shouldn’t. Save the worrying for when you are older. . Some day Quetisi you will be old enough to work. Be a little girl while you have a chance. When that time comes, maybe there will be a better peace between our people and the whites,” said Kuruk. Aponi agreed. Quetisi still hoped to find a job some day. She had made up her mind to help and she was not the kind of girl to give up when she had her mind set on something.

* * *

About a year after her parents died, Quetisi turned twelve. She knew her people who had come back down off the mountain had to work hard to start their lives over. Because she was growing, she needed more to eat. Quetisi asked everyone she met if they knew where she could find some work to do, so maybe she could help with her own keep.

“I want to find work somewhere,” she told her adopted family.

“Quetisi, you are too young to work for whites away from your own people. If you do get a job, I’m afraid the white people will take advantage of you and work you too hard,” Aponi told her.

“I must try to help you and Kuruk. I am thankful you took me into your home, when you can hardly find enough food for your family. I know I am only a child, but I can’t help noticing these things,” said Quetisi.

“You are a brave little girl Quetisi, and very good-hearted,” Aponi told her. “If you did go and work for white people they would be blessed to have you. But after all that has happened, I do not feel we should trust them. If you went to work for some white people, I would worry if they were good to you . Some of them might work you to death. We do have many good white friends, and we haven’t forgotten how they have tried to help us. But there are many white people who will take advantage of orphan children,” said Aponi. “I have heard of children who went cold and hungry and who were mistreated by white people who offered to let them work for their keep.”

Quetisi still wanted a chance to prove herself. She was a little tall for her age and felt sure she was “big enough” to work on her own.

Every time she saw a stranger on their land, Quetisi told them she was looking for a job.

* * *

Not far away, lived a white woman who was looking for a live-in servant. She needed someone to help with the household work, to clean, to serve meals, and to help with the washing. Quetisi got very excited when she heard about the woman, a Mrs. Baker, who was looking for a girl to work for her. Quetisi wanted to ask for the job badly, but she obeyed Aponi and Kuruk, who told her not to leave Cherokee land.

Aponi and Kuruk were happy when Quetisi agreed not to go and ask about the job. They hoped their foster daughter would forget the whole idea.

“She will want someone older,” they told Quetisi. “Promise you will stay here with us and not go out on white people’s property looking for a job.”

Quetisi promised and she kept her word. She did not go anywhere near the Baker’s land to look for a job.